Former Music Director of Opera North, Richard Farnes returns to the helm of the Orchestra to present the second-ever performance of Will Todd’s Songs of Love and Battle. Dedicated to Opera North’s youth ensembles who are featured this evening, Todd’s commission is a micro opera depicting the conflicting emotions of war through the words and poems of Maggie Gottlieb, in eight parts.

Górecki picks up the themes of loss and separation caused by conflict using three Polish texts in his Symphony No 3. The first and third texts are written from the perspective of a mother who has lost a child, whilst the middle text is taken from a message written on the wall of a Gestapo cell during World War II, written by a child separated from her parents. Arguably one of the most famous pieces from the late twentieth century, the heartbreak is felt in every aspect of Górecki’s music.

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Perhaps people find something they need in this piece of music...somehow I hit the right note, something they were missing. Something somewhere had been lost to them. I feel that I instinctively knew what they needed.